Evacuation of burning cargo ship Fremantle Highway was confusing and chaotic: report

The evacuation of the burning Fremantle Highway cargo ship on the North Sea was so confusing and chaotic that only “professional intuition” and “pragmatic solutions” prevented worse from happening. Ambulances turned up at closed gates, helicopters did not know where to take the crew they rescued, and the pilots also didn’t know where to refuel, according to an internal evaluation report by the Trimension agency from Delft, Leeuwaarder Courant reports.

The report is based on the experiences of the rescue services involved - the Coast Guard, KNRM, rescue helicopters, Noordgat shipping company, Noord Nederland Control Room, Veiligheidsregio Groningen, and salvager Multraship. Despite the confusion, they managed to rescue 23 crew members from the ship, which ended up burning for days on end. One crew member died.

The issues started with the first report of the fire during the early hours of 26 July 2023. The Fremantle Highway reported to the Coast Guard that they had a fire on board but required “no assistance.” Because their contact spoke calm and understandable English, the Coast Guard sensed no urgency to the situation. Only after a summoned Coast Guard plane arrived on the scene over two hours after the initial report did the extent of the fire become clear. Infrared cameras showed the cargo ship was “radiating heat from front to back,” and evacuation was urged “strictly and as soon as possible.”

The previous wrong assessment of the situation meant that the rescue helicopters took a long time to take off. They were prepared for a firefighting operation but quickly had to be converted into rescue helicopters. The two helicopters eventually rescued a total of 16 men off board. The other seven crew members had jumped overboard, one dying in the fall. Rescue boats took them to Lauwersoog, where ambulances took them to the nearest hospital.

But no one knew what to do with the crew members on the helicopters. The pilots first flew toward the hospital in Leeuwarden, but because the crew members were largely uninjured, the control room called them back. The next destination was the Leeuwarden air base, but due to miscommunication between the Control Room and the Coast Guard command center, the helicopters were redirected again to Eelde airport. “Because all preparations were aimed at that.”

But at the Eelde airport, the rescued crew members couldn’t be transferred to paramedics for medical checks because the “ambulances couldn’t enter the airport because the gate was closed.” The crew of a trauma helicopter always stationed at Eelde eventually took pity on the men and took them in.

Refueling was also an issue for the helicopters. The Coast Guard helicopter flew to Eemshaven to refuel, not realizing that it was possible to do so in Eelde. The second helicopter, with seven crew on board, refueled on a gas drilling platform in the North Sea before flying to Eelde.

The goal of this evaluation is to improve the emergency services' cooperation with each other. It is also “preparation for possible external investigations.” The Dutch Safety Board is also investigating.